Archaeological Investigations at 201 Folsom Street, San Francisco

Abstract:

This thesis examines features and artifact assemblages from an archaeological site known
as 201 Folsom Street, CA-SFR-000193/H. The thesis presents analysis of this site though
a study of archival research, recovered artifacts, buried features and interprets aspects of
the daily lives of the people living in the project vicinity during the mid- and latenineteenth
century. Focusing on boarding house and family home privies from 201
Folsom Street, I evaluate relevant artifact assemblages for differences in consumer
behavior between the different households. This is accomplished by analysis of the
relative durability and decorations of plates and cups between features and by
comparative frequency analysis of children’s items uncovered between them as well. The
first chapter provides an introduction, project description, presents research hypotheses,
and briefly discusses conclusions. The second chapter offers an historical background and
a review of relevant scholarly and gray literature. The third chapter describes what was
unearthed at the project site in some detail, feature by feature, focusing on those features
most relevant to the hypotheses around which this thesis revolves. The fourth chapter
offers a more detailed exploration of those features of greatest interest here. The last
chapter concludes by presenting analyses of the findings of the archaeological
investigations of the two privy types at the 201 Folsom Street site. The thesis ultimately
finds that there are more durable plates and cups within the boarding house assemblage.
However, there were not more toys found within the family assemblage as previously
hypothesized. This thesis raises other archaeological research questions that can be
answered through further investigations.